St. Louis Cannabis Conference: Pro-Legalization Police Officer Says "The Public is Waking Up"

Tony Ryan, who served as a police officer for more than three decades, says he's never smoked marijuana in his life -- but now, post-retirement, he's devoting much of his energy to the cause of legalization.

"Marijuana is one of the most enforced of the illegal drugs, even though it's the absolutely least offensive," Ryan, 67, says, adding, "The public is waking up."

Ryan, who was a police officer for 36 years in Denver, Colorado, was in St. Louis this weekend as the keynote speaker for a statewide conference on cannabis law reform organized by Show-Me Cannabis and Daily RFT got a chance to catch up with him before his speech.

Ryan, who has become a vocal law enforcement advocate for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, comes to St. Louis at a time when police support of pot reform has become increasingly controversial.

Ryan, a retired lieutenant, has been volunteering his time around the country with an organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, which advocates for the legalization and regulation of marijuana and other controlled substances.

In Missouri, there are currently no legislative efforts to legalize pot, though advocates recently touted a poll that says a majority of residents in the state would support the regulation of marijuana like alcohol.

It's obvious and will happen eventually in Missouri and around the country, Ryan argues.

With LEAP, a nonprofit group that is active nationally and internationally, Ryan argues that the prohibition of marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources and is entirely ineffective. He says that without regulation, pot and other drugs are controlled by cartels and gangs -- and require officers to spend their limited time and resources on processing minor offenses.

"The majority [of street cops] are upset when they are out there doing...their work and they have to stop for a silly [pot] violation," he argues. "It's a long process...and you have to be taken of the street. For marijuana? It's a waste of our time."

Ryan says that most cops know this -- and the public is starting to see it, too.

"Street cops are the ones...that do the real police work that society created cops for. They don't have time to mess with this," he says, adding, "The tide is turning."

Continue for more of our interview with Tony Ryan and one of his advocacy videos.

To see socially-regressive, sanctimonious neanderthals—while falsely touting church, God or patriotism—denigrate, bully, threaten, and even murder the ill and dying for choosing to exercise their God-given right to self-medicate with one of Earth’s most medically efficacious plants.

To see our prisons filled to budget-busting capacity on the false pretense of protecting people from themselves.

To see the selective targeting and destruction of African-American families and African-American communities.

To see the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of Americans destroyed or severely disrupted.

To see our Federal government using the international drug trade to fund their despicable black-operations throughout the entire globe.

To see the huge market in narcotics gifted to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists, and corrupt law enforcement.